TTB Reports

How much time are you spending?

Life, beer, and taxes. Taxation on beer production will always be a part of doing business whether we like it or not. Unfortunately, our beloved craft beer falls under a specific category of taxation and stringent government regulation.

You can equate TTB reports to simple checkups, or outright pulling of teeth, depending on the amount of time and effort you spend gathering data to complete the forms. The only variable you can control is the time and effort spent gathering data by putting systems in place to make things easier.

If you’re like most breweries, you keep brewsheet data and information in a spreadsheet or binder. Once a month (or quarter) you have to go back and gather data from the production department, then find out how much was sold. Things get even more tedious when determining how much was transferred or sold if you have a brew pub or restaurant with multiple locations.

Gary Godfrey, our Director of Technology and seasoned implementation consultant, has spent weeks on site with several breweries in the past and the feedback regarding TTB reporting shares a common theme of frustration:

“What I hear from most brewers when I’ve been onsite to implement OBeer is that they definitely do not “enjoy” the Brewer’s Report of Operations. I hear things like: ‘You have no idea much time I spend on it…”

The hours spent manually gathering data for the reports may vary by brewery, but according to Gary’s experience a brewer will spend an average of 6-8 hours, usually spread over a few days.

The OBeer reports and development team also spent a significant amount of time configuring and improving OrchestratedBEER’s reporting feature to help eliminate the time consuming process of filling out TTB reports. Godfrey explains how the software’s reporting tools alone are worth the investment because of the time and energy saved by eliminating the process of data gathering and dual entry

“One of the biggest advantages of our TTB reporting tool that people may not realize is that as they go about their daily production duties, they’re adding data into the system which automatically populates the database for future reporting. When it’s time to report, they simply define the dates and specify their production location and the report is instantly generated.”

How OBeer TTB reporting software works:

When you sell beer, or transfer inventory from a warehouse to the taproom, it’s reporting that data automatically. Your brewery’s daily activities are creating the transactions and storing all the data in the system that the Brewer’s Report of Operation uses.

OrchestratedBEER’s TTB reporting uses a series of queries based on conditions, so every field in the Brewer’s Report of Operations form is associated with a query. You can even drill down right from the report to see what the numbers are and see the transactions associated with those numbers. OrchestratedBEER accomplishes a 6-8 hour task in a manner of minutes.

How The OBeer TTB report is different:

Gary has spent a lot of time with brewers to find out what they need from a system and has also evaluated other “TTB software” available in the market today:

“From what I’ve seen from other TTB software out there is a lot of manual entry that’s not as automated as you would expect. Some systems still require you to enter beginning inventory balances for individual items, and you’re having to go gather that data and fill it out. Our system prepares that data for you automatically as you perform your daily activities.”

The Latest in TTB Reporting:

Adding additional tables on the report so address portions print uniquely for each location.

Flagging “contracted” batches & specialty Items such as cider to be excluded from TTB

How much time are you spending filling out these reports? Consider the positive impact of allocating this time to focus on the brewery and less time gathering data.

TTB Reporting Video Overview

Check out the 2-minute video below for a quick but detailed glimpse at OrchestratedBEER’s TTB reporting capabilities

OrchestratedBEER has full TTB reporting that eliminates the need to calculate numbers after the fact. Run the Taxable Shipment Details by State report to see what beer was sold in which states and to what customers by dollars, units, barrels, gallons or liters to get the necessary information to file state tax reports.

Generate the TTB Brewer’s Report of Operations and TTB Excise Tax Return for any time period with information that is automatically accumulated as operational processes occur.

The TTB reporting tool is just one of the many examples of how brewery management software can help your brewery streamline processes, avoid dual entry into multiple systems, and prevent what we call “information silos”. Visit our product page to learn more about which product is right for your brewery.